Hey everyone!
Well, I'm still high from all the endorphins from last night run! woot woot!
It was in the low 20's, snowing and the wind was blowing so hard last night, but it was one of the best runs I've ever had.
I've built up to pushing myself at around an 8:15 per mile pace over around 6 miles, but last night, wow! I rocked 7 miles at around a 7:45 pace and that included my four walking breaks to catch my breath!
At around mile four, I just couldn't get enough oxygen in and my chest was starting to cramp, so I was forced to drop from our elite running group and do an active recovery on my own. I walked for maybe 100 feet until I could breath again and then went right back at it. Surprisingly, I was actually gaining on the group after my short rest! But it didn't last and after almost just under a mile (I'm guessing) I ended up walking another 50 -75 feet and then hit the snow covered pavement once again as hard as I thought I could maintain.
I could still see the group until they went down a hill (man, those guys just took off!) and I took the hill as an active recovery just keeping about the same pace. I went up a small hill, turned the corner and into the cemetery to add on an extra 3/4 of a mile. I almost bypassed the cemetary thinking that maybe I'd catch the guys coming out of the cemetary at the other end and I could run the last leg with them, but I didn't want to cheat myself out of the miles.
I had to walk one more time in the cemetery to catch my breath and bam, I was on the home stretch. To my confusion though, I didn't see their footprints in the snow when I came out, so I got to wondering if they added to the course and to my disappointment, they weren't at the store when I got back. Well, they did two loops through the cemetery and it was funny, cause they thought that they were so far ahead of me, that I must have taken some shortcut back to the store LOL! They averaged 7:31 per mile
For me, this was one of my best runs and although I ache a little this morning, I'm still feeling good!
Hope to hear how everyone else is doing